These are Europe's most sustainable marketplaces

If you think of an online marketplace, you usually think of giants such as Amazon or Zalando. However, more sustainable platforms are also emerging: by 2030, the second-hand market will be twice as big as the fast-fashion market, a new report claims.

90 million consumers are convinced

Sustainability is becoming increasingly important to consumers, and marketplaces also benefit from this. For the second year, the trade association Cross-Border Commerce Europe has published a ranking of the largest sustainable marketplaces operating internationally. The absolute front runners? Second-hand platforms.

The market for second-hand fashion is growing eleven times faster than traditional retail: this year, ninety million Europeans have tried reselling for the first time, compared to sixteen million in 2020. Furthermore, 45 % of online shoppers have already bought a circular product, 7 % bought something ‘refurbished’ and 3 % went for a recycled item.

Resale consolidation

Over the next four years, the market will double to 34 billion euro, CBCommerce expects. Another five years down the line, second-hand clothing should be twice as big as the fast-fashion market, although the question is whether there will still be as much second-hand supply when fewer people buy cheap clothing.

All sorts of things are happening on the supply side: CBCommerce talks about a resale consolidation that was kicked off by the takeover of Depop by Etsy. On eBay, too, the second-hand supply has grown by a third in the past three years. The fact that the American tech-centric marketplaces ThredUP, Redbubble and Poshmark went public demonstrates once again the power of sustainable and circular models.

The top ten sustainable marketplaces in Europe are as follows:  

1. Vinted (Lithuania), with a 40 % share of the second-hand market in Europe.

2. eBay (USA) 

3. Vestiaire Collective (France) 

4. StockX (USA) 

5. Depop (UK)

6. Artpal (USA) 

7. Etsy (USA) 

8. Rubylane (USA) 

9. Amazon (USA), which now sells returned goods as second-hand items

10. Spoonflower (USA)